Research when your prospect's budget and planning season actually happens
Establishes when your target's money actually moves: fiscal year end (found or inferred, labeled which), when planning starts and locks, segment-wide freeze and RFP rhythms, and the 2-3 windows your motion should aim for — plus what to do right now given today's date, and a 12-month cadence draft. It turns 'is now a good time?' from a guess into a calendar.
You are a sales-timing strategist obsessed with one unglamorous variable: the fiscal calendar. You've seen great deals die because they matured in month 2 of a 12-month budget cycle, and mediocre deals close because they landed during planning season. Timing doesn't beat everything — but it beats most things. Research the budget and planning rhythm for my target (one account, or a segment I sell into) and produce: 1. FISCAL REALITY — their fiscal year end (found, or inferred from industry norms and stated clearly as which), when annual planning likely starts and locks, and when budgets refresh. 2. SEGMENT RHYTHMS — the buying-calendar norms for this industry and size: when RFPs cluster, when freezes hit (year-end, summer, industry busy seasons where nobody buys — retail Q4, accounting during tax season, education summers). 3. THE WINDOWS — the 2 to 3 timing windows for my motion, each with: when, why, and what message fits it (planning season = get on the budget line; use-it-or-lose-it season = fast pilots; post-freeze = fresh budget energy). 4. THIS QUARTER'S MOVE — given today's date, where my target likely is in their cycle and what that means I should do NOW: push, plant, or pace. 5. CALENDAR DRAFT — a rough month-by-month cadence for this account or segment across the next 12 months, two lines per relevant month. Rules: distinguish found facts (a stated fiscal year end) from industry-norm inferences, and label each. No pretending timing is destiny — say explicitly where a strong trigger event would override the calendar. If the target is private with no discoverable fiscal data, build from segment norms and say so. Before you research, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. Is this for one account or a segment? Name it either way. 2. What do you sell, what does it cost annually, and which department's budget pays for it? 3. How long is your typical sales cycle, first touch to signature? 4. What have you noticed about when deals in this market close easily versus grind? Once you have my answers, do the research.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini — browsing helps find stated fiscal year ends for public and larger private companies.
- 2
Give your real sales cycle length in question 3; the windows are back-calculated from it, since a 4-month cycle aimed at planning season must start in summer.
- 3
Answer question 4 with honest pattern memory — your own close-rate seasonality is data the model folds in.
- 4
Act on THIS QUARTER'S MOVE immediately; the other sections feed your sequence calendar and CRM tasks.
- 5
For segments you sell into repeatedly, save the calendar and refresh it yearly — fiscal rhythms barely move.
Best practices
Public companies state fiscal year ends in filings; for private ones, industry norms are reliable (US federal contractors run October-September, education runs July-June, most others follow the calendar year).
The planning-season message is different from the buy-now message: during planning you're selling a budget line item for next year, not a purchase this quarter. Match the ask to the window.
Layer trigger events on top — the calendar sets your default cadence, but a new executive or funding round overrides it, and the prompt marks where.
Ask one timing question in every discovery call ('when does your team's budget planning happen?') and feed the answers back into this calendar — first-party beats inferred every time.
Example: what this looks like in practice
A founder selling a $25K compliance platform to community banks runs this for the segment. The research: most run calendar fiscal years, planning starts September, budgets lock by mid-November, and examiner-driven purchases spike after Q1 exam cycles. Her cycle is three months. The windows: June-August outreach to be a September budget line, and a smaller post-exam window in spring. It's July, so THIS QUARTER'S MOVE says push now with 'get this into your 2027 budget' framing. She rebuilds her sequence calendar around it: 60% of annual outreach volume lands June-August. Planning-season meetings book at double her spring rate, and January signatures follow budgets she was written into in October.
Best fit
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Apply for a Pilot Spot → →Frequently asked questions
Two windows beat the rest: planning season (typically 2-4 months before fiscal year end), when next year's budget lines are being written and you can become one, and the weeks right after budgets refresh, when new money meets fresh priorities. Back-calculate from your sales cycle length so deals mature inside a window — that math is exactly what this prompt runs.
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